Vestiges of the Heart

A Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction by Eternal Opus

Volume One – Covenant

Chapter 1: Meet, Discover, Search

***Please note that there will be spoilers for ALL Kingdom Hearts Games: Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and Kingdom Hearts II. Please read at your own risk.***

As his reflection in the calm water stared back at him, thoughts of Sora's friends drifted through his mind, like leaves across the wind. Not once did he ever think this would happen, not after all they had been through together. He wondered for a moment if he would ever see them again. Them. It pained Sora to think of their names. He half-wished that Naminé could change his memories around so he could forget them. But Naminé was gone, too.

Sora stood still until the sunset flashed in his eyes, abruptly putting and end to his hurtful reverie. There's got to be a way to put all of this behind me, he thought to himself. He stared longingly at the crimson and violet fusion the sun was reflecting into the ocean. A ripple formed underneath him; a single tear fell, breaking the serenity of the water. He had promised himself he wouldn't cry anymore. So much for that.

He didn't go home that night; he was much too tired for that. Instead, he stared at the sunset until it faded under the horizon. It doesn't have to be like this, Sora heard a familiar voice say. He almost turned around to see who had spoken, but he knew nobody was there. A Nobody to be exact. At least he still had his other half, Roxas.

Then why did it happen? Sora replied in his head.

We'll never know unless we find out. Go to the Secret Place. Maybe the door will appear.

I can't, Roxas, I just—can't. It's…it would hurt me too much.

Roxas knew there was no convincing half of himself so he dropped his appeal. Eventually they would be drawn to the others. It just had to happen. But Sora had given up hope.

He was just about to fall asleep on the sand when—

Sora!

!!

He jumped up and fell head first into the water. Spluttering, he got up and looked around frantically. Whose voice was that? "Hello?" he called out to the night. No answer. "Is anybody there?"

"Sora?" The voice was out loud this time; a girl's voice, a very familiar girl's voice.

"Who's there?" Sora called out again, getting more and more frustrated every second. "If nobody's there, then stop calling my name!"

"Nobody? Ouch, that really hurts, kiddo."

That moment, Sora finally saw the body the voice belonged to. He couldn't believe his eyes! What was she doing here? She was supposed to be dead! Well, as close to dead as she could be. Sora stared blankly at her; she had a scar on her right cheek which was coated with fresh tears. She was not the same person Sora remembered; he could see that very plainly.

"…but why can't we go back now?" He didn't answer her. Instead, he just stood there with his back to her. He was staring intently at something she could not see.

"Shh, I think it might be here."

"Here? Are you sure?"

"Kairi, I said it might be here. Come over here and help me look for it."

"I'm not helping you look for anything until you tell me what it is we're trying to find! And why did we have to sneak off like that? You know, he's probably looking for us right now. What's he going to think when we're not there?"

"Kairi, listen to me, okay? Sora is in danger and if we had brought him with us, it would just make things worse for him. Do you want something horrible to happen to Sora? Huh?"

Kairi was silent. The words were stuck at the base of her throat, just dying to escape, dying to bring tears with them. She loved him too much to even imagine him being hurt, let alone know that she was the cause of it.

"Huh, Kairi? Answer me!"

"No! I don't want him to get hurt!" Kairi screamed. Riku let her fall to her knees as she began sobbing. She hadn't cried yet this entire time, and he knew that she needed this release now or she surely wouldn't make it much farther. Better for her to fall to pieces now; more time to put them back together once this ordeal was over and done with. She had no clue how much anguish he was feeling over this. He didn't want to hurt Sora any more than Kairi did, but there was no avoiding it this time.

Suddenly, Riku and Kairi saw a faint light glowing from a nearby crevice in the cavern's wall. Kairi wiped her tears and as they both approached the light, its radiance blinding them. They pressed on, the light grower brighter and brighter with each step they took.

Then they saw it: a brilliant heart-shaped crystal floating above a granite pedestal of sorts. The light dimmed as soon as Riku, who lead, approached it.

"This is it," he whispered over his shoulder to Kairi. "This is the Illumina Heart."

"Illumina…Heart?" Kairi said, her composure now slowly returning to her. "It's…so beautiful! This is what we need?"

"Yeah. This will save him. This will save all of us!"

"Oh yes, it could save us all," a malevolent yet delicate voice breathed behind them.

Riku and Kairi whipped around only to see a single rose petal float gently to the ground. Just then, the light from the Illumina Heart went out. "It's gone!" Kairi exclaimed, horrified.

"Who did that voice belong to?" Riku said. "WHO ARE YOU?!"

"Riku, he's gone. He took the Illumina Heart. Now what do we do?"

"We have to get out of here and find whoever took it! Let's go!"

He took off down the long stone passageway of the cavern, Kairi at his heels. Just when they first caught sight of the light from the outside, a tremor brought them both tumbling down to the ground. The cavern started shaking violently. In a matter of mere seconds, the outside was sealed away from the two friends, along with any hope of retrieving the Illumina Heart after it had been snatched away from them as quickly as they had glimpsed it.

Tifa had just finished her daily patrol of Radiant Garden when she got yet another call from him. What is it with this guy? I still don't even know his name! Hesitantly she took the phone out of her pocket and checked the caller I.D. Figures, it's a private number. She knew who it was right away.

"Listen," she said as soon as she flipped the phone open, "you better tell me who you are right now! No more games! You keep asking me for my help and I've done as well as I can so far but enough is enough! It's kind of hard to help someone I don't know."

"I can't tell you my name right now, Tifa," he said. "Just give me some time and I'll be able to meet you in person."

"Then will you tell me your name and why you need my help? And for what, exactly?"

"Yes. But for now, I just need you to trust me. It will only be like this for a little while longer. Will you stick with me?"

"Fine," Tifa agreed, reluctantly. "As long as you promise me that I can meet you and find out who you are and what you're all about."

"I promise," the man said. "I just called to ask you if you could put me through to Cloud or Squall, please."

"He goes by 'Leon' now," Tifa said. "He hasn't been known as 'Squall' for years."

"I know, but I've always know of him as Squall Leonhart. Are either he or Cloud available?"

"Not at the moment," Tifa answered, "but would you be willing to talk to Aerith?"

"No, that's okay," said the man. "I need to speak to either Cloud or…Leon."

"Can I at least have your number so I can call you when one of them gets back?"

"That won't be necessary, Tifa. I'll know when to call back. Thank you so much." And he hung up, leaving Tifa more confused than ever. She decided to go see what Cid and Yuffie were up to.

Cid and Yuffie were finishing stocking Gummi Ship parts at Cid's store when Tifa walked in. "Tifa!" Yuffie said. "How was your patrol?"

"It went alright," replied Tifa. "No Heartless or Nobodies to speak of, so that's a good sign."

"They've been gone for a while, haven't they?" said Yuffie in amazed relief. "I hope they don't ever come back! It wouldn't be pretty for them, I'll tell you that!"

"You got that right!" Cid exclaimed. "Those dang monsters were gettin' on my nerves! People were too afraid to go outside and shop at my store! Bad for business! I'm tellin' ya, if those creeps ever come back, I'll be packin' a wallop upside all of 'em, mark my words!" He started punching and kicking the air, barely missing Tifa and Yuffie.

"Hey, watch it!" yelled Yuffie. Cid just laughed.

"So what's on you mind, Tifa?" asked Cid. "You look worried about something."

"Huh?" Tifa was halfway in a daydream. "Um, nothing's wrong. I'm just thinking."

"About what?" Yuffie asked. "Come on, tell us!"

"Well," Tifa began, "a few weeks ago I got a call from this guy. The number on the call display was 'private.' When I answered it, instead of telling me who he was, he asked me to search Hollow Bastion. I thought maybe he meant the town and didn't know it was called Radiant Garden again, but he told me he meant Ansem's castle. He asked me to look for something called the Illumina Heart. I asked him what it was, but all he would tell me was that it was very important and that people would be in danger unless I found it. So every few days for the last three weeks he's been calling me to see if I've had any luck finding this Illumina Heart."

"So that's why you volunteered to take up the patrol," Yuffie said. "Have you had any luck yet?"

"Not at all. I haven't even found anything that might suggest that it's even here. I've searched the castle, the town, everywhere for almost a month and nothing at all! And I still don't know his name or why he needs this thing!" She looked at Cid, then at Yuffie, both of whom looked just as confused as she did.

"Well, I'm sure you'll find some sort of clue," Cid reassured her. "If you want, we'll help you."

"Yeah!" Yuffie agreed. "And we'll get Cloud, Leon, Aerith, and Merlin to help, too! Maybe even the Gullwings!"

"You rang?"

Seemingly out of nowhere came three little pixies, the Gullwings: Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. They were mischievous treasure hunters, sometimes up to no good, but they weren't bad girls. On the contrary, they were quite helpful and knew where a lot of secret passages, nooks, and crannies were around Radiant Garden, and possibly other worlds as well.

"Gullwings, at your service!" cried Yuna.

"We're here to help!" squeaked Rikku.

"For a price," snickered Paine.

"Oh, come on!" said Yuffie in exasperation.

"We've given you a lot of treasure, girls," Tifa said. "Why does everything have to come with a cost, huh? Can't you do anything out of goodwill? You know, for free?"

"Huddle!" called Yuna to the other Gullwings. The whispered rapidly to each other. Nodoby could hear them, not even Yuffie who held her ear right up to the treasure hunters.

"Alright," Paine began. "We'll make you a deal. If you give us a cut of the loot, we'll find it for you. How's that sound? We're willing to settle for twenty percent."

"Twenty percent?!" cried Yuffie. "No—"

"—Deal," Tifa assented. Yuffie almost feel over in shock.

"W-w-what?" she stammered.

"I said it's a deal," Tifa replied simply. "I need to find the Illumina Heart and I could use their help. If that's the price I have to pay, then fine."

"But how—"

"—Remember, it's called the 'Illumina Heart.' Got that?"

"Yup, yup!' Rikku called out as she and her comrades flew off to find the exciting treasure.

"Tifa, you're not actually gonna give them twenty percent of a heart, are you?" asked Cid. "I mean, how's that even possible?"

"It's probably not an actual heart, Cid," she replied. "Besides, I'm not actually going to give them the heart. I'll find something else of value. But you're going to have to haggle since you're good at the sort of thing and I'm, well…I'm not." She laughed a little.

Her heart skipped a beat as her phone rang again. This time the caller I.D. said "Cloud." "Hello?" Tifa answered.

"Tifa!" Cloud shouted. "Help!"

"What's wrong?" Tifa said, frightened.

"It's Leon! He's—something's wrong with him!"

"Where are you? What's going on?"

"We're down at the Great Maw, but something's happening to Leon! He just keeled over and now he's writhing all over the ground! He's in pain and I don't know what to do! Get down here with Aerith! Please!"

"Okay! We'll be right there!" She hung up the phone and dashed off to Merlin's house to find Aerith.

"Tifa!" Yuffie and Cid called after her, but she was already gone.